What You Should Do

Seek treatment in a cancer center where doctors are experienced treating patients with MDS.

Talk with your doctor about your diagnostic tests and what the results mean.

Ask your doctor whether a clinical trial is a good treatment option for you.

How Does MDS Develop?

The DNA (genetic material) of a developing stem cell in the bone marrow is damaged. This is called an “acquired mutation.”

Stem cells form blood cells (white cells, red cells and platelets).

Blood cell production in the marrow increases with more-than-the-normal number of developing blood cells (called "blast cells") filling the marrow. These blast cells die as they approach maturity, before they would normally be released into the blood.

This results in a lower than normal number of circulating blood cells.

As a result, the number of healthy blood cells (red cells, white cells and platelets) is usually lower than normal.

Anemia is a condition when there is a low number of red cells in the blood which can cause fatigue and shortness of breath.

Neutropenia is a condition when there is a low number of white cells so that the immune system can't effectively guard against infection due to a lack of neutrophils (a type of white cell).

Thrombocytopenia is a condition when there is a low number of platelets which can cause bleeding and easy bruising with no apparent cause.

Low numbers of all three blood cell counts is called pancytopenia.

However, marrow cell disturbances in MDS patients range from mild to very severe.

In some patients, the MDS cells can still function and enter the blood. Red cells continue to carry oxygen, white cells (neutrophils and monocytes) ingest and kill bacteria and platelets plug up injury to blood vessels.

In more severe cases of MDS, blood cell formation is more disordered and abnormal blast cells (blasts) accumulate in marrow and blood. These cells don't mature into cells that function properly. They aren't as capable as normal cells are of maturing into red cells, neutrophils and platelets.

Normally, blasts make up less than 5 percent of all cells in the marrow. With MDS, blasts often make up more than 5 percent of cells in marrow. The number of blasts is key to determining how severe the MDS is.

Your doctor plans your treatment according to whether your MDS is low or high risk. For more information, see Treatment.

Is MDS Cancer?

Many patients ask whether MDS is a type of cancer. MDS, in fact, is cancer. Cancer means that a mutation (change) to a normal cell leads to the development of cells that no longer behave normally. However, the effect of a disease on a patient's life is more important than the term used to describe the disease. The course of MDS can be slower and interfere less with quality of life than the course of some other diseases that aren't cancer.

Risk Factors

Most people who have MDS are diagnosed with primary MDS, also called de novo MDS. With primary MDS, there is no obvious cause in most patients. One known MDS risk factor is repeated exposure to the chemical benzene, which damages the DNA of stem cells. Benzene is found in cigarette smoke, the most common known cause of exposure to this toxin. Benzene is also found in certain industrial settings. Strict regulations on its use, however, have resulted in decreased exposure in the workplace.

Some people with MDS are diagnosed with treatment-related MDS (also called secondary MDS). Treatment-related MDS arises after chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment for other cancers such as lymphoma, myeloma or breast cancer. The proportion of people exposed to chemotherapy and radiotherapy who develop MDS is small.

Also:

You can not catch MDS from someone else.

Some experts think MDS and other cancers may develop in some people because their cells have a limited ability to repair themselves after exposure to certain risk factors, but this hasn't been proved.

Follow us

Newsletter subscription

This field is requiredEmail address

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada (LLSC) is a voluntary health agency dedicated to blood cancers. We provide free information and support services to patients and caregivers. The LLSC mission: Cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.